Are we now quoting the Vox Clara translation of the Missal as authoritative? The Latin prefaces almost all end with sine fines dicentes, with only an occasional sin fine clamantes (e.g. the first preface for martyrs or the fifth preface for ordinary time). “Without end we acclaim” seems to vbe a VCism. Moreover, several of the prefaces speak of our joining in the angels’ hymnum (e.g. all the Easter prefaces). The rubric says that the celebrant and people cantans vel clara voce dicens. So if we look at the Latin there is not a lot of “acclaiming” going in connection with the Sanctus.

You are, however, correct that in connection with the Mysterium fidei the verb acclamat is used.

I’m not sure a lot can be made of the specific phraseology in either case, but it is good to remember that even when dealing with the new “corrected” translation of the Missal a good principle is caveat lector.

 Report Comment

Read Gelineau on the history of Mysterium Fidei and the memorial acclamations in the postconciliar EP. It is quite clear that all these interventions (French for “interpolations”) in the Prayer are considered as acclamations, as indeed are the more numerous examples in some of the EPs for Masses with Children.

The Order of Mass itself reinforces this. Many Prefaces end “as without end we acclaim” or similar words before the Sanctus. The rubric introducing the Memorial Acclamation runs “And the people continue, acclaiming:” and the rubric introducing the Great Amen says “The people acclaim:”

They may have different literary forms, but they are all functionally acclamations.

 Report Comment

Even within the compositions of the last 4 decades, the quality within a given composer’s setting can often be highly variable, so that it’s more appropriate to mix-and-match, as it were rather than sticking to the unity of the musical setting, without compromising at all the sense of the anaphora as a unity. The intention of the composers is not dispositive in this regard….

 Report Comment

Chris Walker does this rather well in his rewrite of “A Celtic Liturgy” (as he did in the original) where the acclamations don’t use exactly the same melodic material but they are united by their tonality.

Paul Inwood does this equally well in his “Coventry Acclamtions”: the Amen is harmonically, rather than melodically, connected to the Holy, making the link much more subtle than in some settings around at the moment.

 Report Comment

Also, plenty of preconciliar composers composed *within* the liturgical context, and the Council took pains to avoid entirely excluding that music from the reformed liturgy. A rigid approach that effectively proscribes such music entirely is not a good working rule from the perspective the conciliar reform.

 Report Comment